Some recent bug shots :)

Lord Vetinari

Recently been doing some aperture tests on the MPE-65 checking the balance between DOF and diffraction softening. At higher magnifications diffraction softening kicks in at quite open apertures. I looked at this when I felt some of my high magnification shots were a bit soft. Shooting at lower apertures means I'm using focus stacking even more.

Optimum appears to be
1:1 2:1 3:1 4:1 5:1
...F11 .F9 .F8 .F7.1

Anyway some shots using above settings

Brian V.

Flesh fly 3:1 F9 uncropped focus stacked from 3 pics



Cranefly close up uncropped focus stacked from 3 pics



Dragonfly sunning itself on a sunchair 1:1 focus stacked from 5 pics



A predatory spider mite 2mm long taken at 4:1 and yes those are it's eyes

Awais Yaqub

Bugs everywhere
Great photos what can i say These are superb
which one is closest i mean what is limit of megnification you can get

Lord Vetinari

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Bugs everywhere
Great photos what can i say These are superb
which one is closest i mean what is limit of megnification you can get

Thanks Awais
The last shot is the highest magnification- about 45X on the PC screen taken at 4:1

I did do some experimental shots using the MPE-65 at 5:1 plus a 20 dioptre closeup lens on the front and a 1.4X TC on the back tjhis gave a magnification of 9.9:1 (FOV width of 2.2mm)
Shots below are crops taken at this magnification.
Brian V.

Pollen grains



Edge of an orchid petal

Rhuarc

Wow! I'm seriously amazed! Do you have any pictures of the setup you use? I'd be curious to see what type of equipment you use and how large your setup is.

gluwater

Rhuarc wrote:

Wow! I'm seriously amazed! Do you have any pictures of the setup you use? I'd be curious to see what type of equipment you use and how large your setup is.

Lord V uses a MPE-65. A specialty macro lens that does 1:1-5:1 magnification. But it's not the equipment, Brian is the man . Those pollen grains and Orchid petal are just beyond words.

GraphyFotoz

gluwater wrote:

Lord V uses a MPE-65. A specialty macro lens that does 1:1-5:1 magnification. But it's not the equipment, Brian is the man . Those pollen grains and Orchid petal are just beyond words.

He uses the same lens I have....Sigma EX DG 105mm f2.8 Macro.
Just He is WAY better at using it than I am!

His photo's do nothing but amaze me!!!!

mushy

By far some of the best macro shots from Lord V ever!! That first photo is just wild and so are the extra extra closeups!!

gus

jebus brian...how much closer can you get...any more & we could check dental records for gods sake. I have had my macro for about a month now & the drough is so bad that i am struggling to find stuff when usually our bugs are lined up at the door to get in.

Nikolai

Brian,
I'm speechless... totally speechless!

TristanP

Dragonfly . 'Nuff said.

douglas

Amazing shots, truly stunning!

Lord Vetinari

Rhuarc wrote:

Wow! I'm seriously amazed! Do you have any pictures of the setup you use? I'd be curious to see what type of equipment you use and how large your setup is.

Thanks
Here's some pics ot the 2 setups I'm using at the moment.
First 2 pics Canon 20D with MPE-65 . Third shot my canon 300D with my 105mm EX- still use this a lot for shots at 1:1 or less.
Last shot using my bean-pole stabiliser

Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Thanks for the kind comments all : :
Very much appreciated- I'm still learning and playing
Brian V.

Rhuarc

With that setup how close do you have to physically be to the insects to take the shots? I mean are we talking millimeters or centimeters? I can't imagine how you got some of those shots without them flying away! What are you doing, gassing them first?

Lord Vetinari

Rhuarc wrote:

With that setup how close do you have to physically be to the insects to take the shots? I mean are we talking millimeters or centimeters? I can't imagine how you got some of those shots without them flying away! What are you doing, gassing them first?

Generally the front of the lens is between 1.5" and 4" away from the subject. There is a slight art to approaching bugs with a camera and not getting them spooked there's some hints here.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/72057594073223102/

Obviously I don't get pics of the bugs I do spook .
Luckily very small bugs tend not to take too much notice of you
Brian V.

gtc

excellent
you have the focus stacking down pat-well done as always

USAIR

Amazing shots as always

Nice to see your set up too

Thanks
Fred

Lord Vetinari

gtc wrote:

you have the focus stacking down pat-well done as always

Thanks Greg
As I keep on saying to others, focus stacking like taking macro shots is jst about practice- the more you do it the better you get
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

USAIR wrote:

Amazing shots as always

Nice to see your set up too

Thanks
Fred

Thanks Fred
I get asked quite frequently about it so have a section on flickr I can refer to
Brian V.

Skippy

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Recently been doing some aperture tests on the MPE-65 checking the balance between DOF and diffraction softening. At higher magnifications diffraction softening kicks in at quite open apertures. I looked at this when I felt some of my high magnification shots were a bit soft. Shooting at lower apertures means I'm using focus stacking even more.

Optimum appears to be
1:1 2:1 3:1 4:1 5:1
...F11 .F9 .F8 .F7.1

Anyway some shots using above settings
Brian V.
Flesh fly 3:1 F9 uncropped focus stacked from 3 pics
Cranefly close up uncropped focus stacked from 3 pics
Dragonfly sunning itself on a sunchair 1:1 focus stacked from 5 pics
A predatory spider mite 2mm long taken at 4:1 and yes those are it's eyes

Brian I sit in awe of your amazing shots, your work is worthy of National Geographic ..... you continue to amaze everyone here of your incrediable ability to shot Macro I long to walk in your footsteps, and hopefully some day be as good as you ......thanks your for sharing.

Skippy (Australia)

Lord Vetinari

Skippy wrote:

Brian I sit in awe of your amazing shots, your work is worthy of National Geographic ..... you continue to amaze everyone here of your incrediable ability to shot Macro I long to walk in your footsteps, and hopefully some day be as good as you ......thanks your for sharing.

Skippy (Australia)

Thanks for the compliments Skippy, think I just have more time to do my shots than many people
Brian V.

Jeff Fillmore

Truly amazing work.